Tag Archives: class

In December, I blogged about off-the-clock work in my post Unreported, Off-the-Clock Work. Off-the-clock work includes meal break time, and issues arise when employees work during these breaks, or claim that they work during these breaks, but are not paid. Recently, an Ohio federal judge decertified a class of employees who alleged that their employer’s… Continue Reading

When a labor contract contains provisions that address wage hour issues (such as travel time, or donning and doffing time) a defense argument to dismiss a FLSA suit is that the suit is preempted by federal labor law. This is essentially asserting that the wage hour issue is inextricably tied with contract interpretation so it… Continue Reading

The health care industry seems to draw more than its fair share of class action lawsuits. In another example of this trend, home-health workers have filed a FLSA class action in federal court, alleging that their employer misclassified them as exempt and thus improperly denied them overtime. The case is entitled Cook v. Amedisys, Inc.… Continue Reading

I have written several times about Assistant Manager class actions being quite difficult to defend because these employees often perform a great deal of “subordinate” type work, making the issue of “primary duty” a tricky one. In a recent class action involving these employees, a federal judge has denied a motion for conditional certification (which… Continue Reading

In a recent case, a federal judge in New York has allowed a class action to proceed for thousands of employees who allege that they were misclassified as exempt by an accounting firm. The case is entitled Pippins et al. v. KPMG LLP and was filed in the Southern District of New York. The judge… Continue Reading

I have been representing an employer in a class action in which Registered Nurses, paid hourly, sought overtime. We won on summary judgment at the trial court, on the strength of two New Jersey Department of Labor Opinion Letters (one going back to 1975), that held that it was the DOL’s interpretation that as long… Continue Reading

Doug Weiner and Meg Thering, in the Wage Hour Defense Blog, recently commented on the introduction of the Computer Professionals Update Act in the US Senate on October 20, 2011. They posit that this is a good development for employers, as employers would be more easily able to classify employees as exempt under the computer exemption. The… Continue Reading

After a three-week jury trial, Southern New England Telephone Company has won a verdict finding that employees who were titled as field managers and classified as exempt, were in fact exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act and state law. This case is significant because, as a rule, first-level managers are often in reality “working… Continue Reading

A few months ago, the US Supreme Court issued the landmark decision in ATT Mobility LLC v. Concepcion in which the Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act preempted state law that forces class arbitration on parties that have not consented to it. The Court ruled that a California rule that found class action waivers… Continue Reading

In June, I wrote about a lawsuit filed by a former film editor for “Girls Gone Wild,” who alleged that he was entitled to overtime pay because Manta Films Inc. and GGW Direct LLC improperly classified him as an independent contractor. In response to the allegations, Joe Francis, the founder of “Girls Gone Wild,” stated… Continue Reading

Just when the New York Mets thought that things couldn’t get any worse for them this season, they get “hit” with a class action lawsuit for allegedly failing to pay Citi Field security guards overtime. The plaintiffs, Errol K. Roberts and David N. Vernod, allege that Citi Field security guards regularly work 40 hours a… Continue Reading

When employers are compelling employees or “suggesting” to employees that they engage in work-related activities before or after they go on and off the clock, trouble is brewing. In the latest of these working time class actions, a group of employees working for Lululemon Athletica Inc. have sued the company under the Fair Labor Standards… Continue Reading

In a rather new twist on the working time class action trend, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. is being sued in a Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) collective action, where the underlying theory is that the company has denied union representatives compensation for their time performing union-related duties. The case is entitled Kayser et al. v.… Continue Reading

I have defended a number of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class actions and individual suits and many of these result in settlement. When these cases are settled, naturally, a document is drawn up for the plaintiff(s) to sign. These settlements, under law, must be judicially approved and if they are not, both parties (especially… Continue Reading

In another of the slew of tip pool cases that have ripped through the restaurant industry in New York City and elsewhere, a federal judge has granted class certification to workers who receive tips in the Smith &-Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc. These employees allege that the chain has improperly required them to pool their tips… Continue Reading

In Florida, an Assistant Manager has filed a class action against RadioShack Corporation, alleging that the company has misclassified these managers as exempt executives and has not paid them overtime. The case is Truax v. RadioShack Corp. and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The plaintiff is also… Continue Reading

A case has recently issued that provides instructive guidance for employers who may want to insulate themselves from potential liability in a class action lawsuit. A federal judge has ruled that an entity, a sub-contractor that provided janitorial personnel and crews to Target Corp. was contractually obliged to indemnify Target in a Fair Labor Standards… Continue Reading

I have often lamented that the administrative exemption is the grayest of the three white-collar exemptions and the toughest to prove. There are, however, some notable exceptions to this rule. A federal court has granted summary judgment to a temporary employment recruiting firm, where the former employee, an Account Recruiting Manager, alleged he was non-exempt… Continue Reading

A federal judge has dismissed a possible class/collective action concerning an alleged failure by Butterball, the giant poultry company, to pay workers for donning and doffing time. I have written many times on this subject, but this case is different because the court found that the employees’ union had agreed to the policy of not… Continue Reading

Five years ago, the Class Action Fair Act (“CAFA”) was enacted to deal with the onslaught of class action cases and to ensure, if I may say, fairness in the manner in which these cases were litigated but it appears that the ever active and creative plaintiffs bar is coming up with new ways to… Continue Reading

The electronic giant, Best Buy, has requested that a judge approve a $900,000 settlement in a New York State wage-hour class action in which the plaintiffs sought payment for time worked “off-the-clock.” That working time was the minutes spent going through security clearings at the end of the work day, assumedly to ensure that employees did… Continue Reading

Law firms are usually defending clients in wage-hour suits where the allegation is that the employee claims he/she has been misclassified as exempt when they are really not and are due overtime. But, law firms themselves must be diligent about properly classifying their own employees, especially when they categorize employees exempt under the administrative exemption.… Continue Reading

I have posted a few times about Fair Labor Standards Act donning and doffing cases. The general rule is that donning and doffing is compensable if these preliminary and postliminary activities are integral to the performance of the employee’s primary job. For a rule, there is always an exception. In a case entitled Johnson v.… Continue Reading

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, there is no law requiring employees receive a lunch period or break times. However, when the employer gives time for lunch, the employees must receive at least thirty minutes and the time must be uninterrupted. Put differently, the employees must be completely relieved from duty. When employees are not… Continue Reading